Good day everyone, 

As the end of the year comes closer, I saw how much I grew throughout the year in my studies as Foundation Phase teacher. 

My knowledge, skills and attitude regarding music education changed a lot from the beginning of the semester up to now. I didn't liked music education, but through all the knowledge and skills I experienced and build on, I now likes to interpret music in all my lessons and my daily life as a teacher. I always thought that music is only one or two items but now I see that music education consist of a lot of elements and that changed me a lot.

From my experience with the individual reflections, I learned to express my feeling toward something visually by writing / typing it down. The challenging part of this module was the assignments as I was not creative with music education but that changed during the semester. Yes, the individual reflections was meaningful as I could express myself to other people and that helped me to thoroughly process the information. The way in which I did my reflections, I could have added more attention to the reflections. 

The music play and different games we can use was interesting for me and I really enjoy this study Unit (study unit 3). I struggled with how to integrate art into foundation phase and that study unit is not really under wraps yet and I still need to work on that study unit. All of this work is valuable for future teaching and I wouldn't change anything in this module. 

Thank you for reading my blogs and I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do. 

Nerissa du Toit :)

Good day all, 

As a student teacher, I am aware of the importance of assessment in FP classrooms and this includes art. But currently, the assessment of arts are neglected. There could be different reason for this. Some of the reasons can be that the teacher doesn't think art is important for the future and therefore she wouldn't do it in her classroom, she thinks that teacher thinks that the learners would all succeed in Arts and therefore assessing them would have no goal or she don't have time to assess them as teaching time available gets less. 

I would first make sure to include art assessment into my classroom. I can't make other teachers aware of it if I don't use that as well. I will them raise a campaign to all schools / all art teachers to make them aware of assessing arts in Foundation Phase and then help them and work out a solution with them so that we all can change the educational environment by making sure we use and incorporate all important aspects in the classroom. 

Thank you :)

Good day everyone, 

There are different types of arts that one can find. This includes music. Music is an important aspects of arts and must be integrated in the Foundation Phase classroom as it learn learners to respect, appreciate and find a love for the arts. It also helps those who want to become included in arts when they are bigger and older and done with school. 

I found the different ways that can helps us the implement music in other subjects interesting. It is important to implement not music on its own but with the other subjects. Thus this unit / part was interesting as it is a part that I can definitely use to implement music in my Foundation Phase classroom. 

I found the different theories in arts challenging. It is difficult for me to understand the different theories as well as how to implement it in the classrooms. Although, a lot of information was given in the study unit, I am still unsure about how it is implemented and used in the classroom. 

Thank you for reading my blog :)

Good day everyone,

- Learners can get uncomfortable by playing the Zulu stone passing game since they are from different cultures. They can also get uncomfortable with the song as they all speak different languages, they will struggle to pronounce the words correctly. 

- One learner didn't understand the song and the other girl didn't want to dance in front of the boys. 

- I can let the girls and boys dance on different times and not let them dance in front of one another. 
I can make more effort in explaining the words and meaning of the song to the learners. 

- We must be aware of the following: include songs and dances from different cultures, the learners' fears and address that, to explain the words and meaning of the songs so that all the learners understand them. 

Thank you :)
 

Good day everyone :), 

As a Foundation Phase teacher, I would choose to use indigenous African music in my classroom. It is important for foundation phase learners to know their history and culture and therefore, African music will be best to use to keep them in touch with their cultures as South Africans. 

Yes, I think the indigenous African music is inclusive in the content covered in Study Unit 2. They included the different instruments that one can find in African music, although the music sheets included are not those of traditional / indigenous African songs. 

More traditional African songs can be included like for example African Savannah etc. They could have also included African dances or African music games to the content. 

Thank you :)

Good day everyone, 

This is my blog about Study Unit 1. 

When I think about integrating music into my classroom, it is almost as I cannot breath. (I am not creative, if I want to be honest :)). To integrate music in a classroom, is a completely new idea and will be a new experience. I am not confidence in doing this but I think as I complete this module, I will feel more confidence and it will be fun to incorporate it into my classroom. 

I think my option for holistic development of learners would be physical education. I am physical fit and enjoy physical education and therefore it would be more fun for me to rather teach that in my classroom and music as I am not musical. I think both music as well as physical education is important for learners as both will help with a certain development in the learners. Both must be teach in the Foundation Phase classrooms.

Thank you :)